If you have read iDevice.ro these days, then you certainly know about the problem with storage of location information which users visit with an iDevice. In iOS there is a file that saves all the data regarding the locations through which we traveled and it seems that this file exists in iDevices even before iOS 4. Moreover, Apple talks about the file in which the locations are saved even in the rules for using iOS, which we tacitly accept when using an iDevice. This file was never secret, the developers knew about it and apparently it was brought this time the problem under discussion.
Well, now the problem is different, do Apple or mobile phone operators have access to this file? According to him Alex Levinson from Katana Forensics, Apple does not check this file because it does not reach the servers of the company or mobile operators. In this file, applications from iDevices write information, but it does not reach anywhere, according to Levinson. Moreover, in California it is illegal to collect this kind of data and Apple could risk being sued by millions of people if it is discovered that it is doing this.
Apple is not harvesting this data from your device. This is data on the device that you as the customer purchased and unless they can show concrete evidence supporting this claim – network traffic analysis of connections to Apple servers – I reject this claim in full. Through my research in this field and all traffic analysis I have performed, not once have I seen this data traverse a network.
I don't think there was ever a problem that Apple or mobile phone operators have access to these data, but actually the problem is that the file collects the data, it ends up in the computer where it can be taken and accessed by anyone. For Apple, the problem becomes serious after an American senator sent a letter to Steve Jobs asking him about the problem of saving data on visited locations. Finally, the problem is more serious for those who really care about their privacy.
